Demagogue

Of the two daily newspapers in Seattle, the Seattle Times is easily the more conservative. The Seattle Times endorsed the Republican nominee for governor last fall. Back in the 1990's, Frank Blethen, majority owner of the newspaper, helped provide seed money for the coalition that may well succeed in eliminating the inheritance tax.

Wth that context, it was a little surprising to read an editorial like this one in today's Seattle Times:

Elevating Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to pope is a bit like putting the school vice-principal for discipline in charge.

"Cardinal Ratzinger seems determined to push the church backward to dinosaurlike extinction," a Seattle Times letter writer opined in 1986. The cardinal was behind Vatican reprimands of former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen for a lack of firmness in running the diocese and upholding church teachings.

... Now, Pope Benedict XVI will carry the church forth in his own right, though in a way not discernibly different from how things have been done for the past 26 years — or 1,000, for that matter.